The Spring Dances and the Sun appears

 

Ella spent a night at Prom after a close call with contact tracing and a rapid negative test.  She did get pulled from her LaX games but the dance went on.  Friday night she gathered with about a half dozen of her friends and they all made a big lasagna dinner together and topped it off with some poker and a some of them were still around in the morning.  Ella is spending plenty of time playing "wall ball" to practice for LaCrosse and Grace tags along to shoot buckets on the asphalt at FoxView. Sophia spent another night on the dance floor for her Senior ball.  Her and her friends played the black/jack tables and started to realize the senior year was coming to an end.  The girls all had fun and it was great to see some the 'important' aspects of high school get to come back.  The sun poked its heated head out for a single day and pushed the temps 30 degrees higher than the 50 degree temps that had bookended the day.  Merrick and I tossed some knives and we put the garden plants in before the rains came.  The bikes are getting tuned up

Snow?

 

A fool's spring indeed, we awoke to snow this morning and the brief 70 degree temperatures from weeks ago are now only a tormented memory.  Alas, hope springs eternal and we wait for warmer days. Merrick is back in school after his school imposed hiatus.  Virtual learning has made his shop class a little more difficult, but he says at least when he is working in the garage there are no lines at the power tools and the safety test wasn't an requirement.  He is putting together a nice trebuchet for his project and we were able to use some .357 cartridges for spacers...also likely not allowed in 'real' school.  Sophia finally got her prom after the shutdown last year and had a great time with a big dinner, plenty of pictures and some dancing too.  Ella brought us back to some normalcy with a full music production of the school Jam band.  There was dancing, singing and sweet tunes echoing through a gymnasium of socially distant and emotionally close parents eager to see the hard work that kids' had been putting into the performance.  Ella playing the piano is all the more cool when I remember she is self-taught.  Pictures still aren't allowed (by Grace) for the archery club, but that wrapped up with a pizza party and she enjoyed it all enough to give it a go next year as well.  She plans on recruiting some friends in the off season to join her.

Wise for their years

The younger two and I were able to get a jump on the Frolf season and for the first time, I lost to Merrick.  ah, they grow up so fast, but not fast enough to buy their own Uncle Mike's on the way home.  That is still my job apparently.  It is the birthday season as well so we spent time eating out. Merrick wanted take out from 5 guys (only took two days to air out the truck from driving it home) and Grace wanted to make a sushi run.  Ella, was not interested in either one having just had her wisdom teeth yanked out.  Sophia, Grace, Amy and I split several different rolls and Merrick and Ella nursed some soup...because one could not eat and the other wasn't about to eat sushi.  Easter has come and gone complete with eggs and chocolate rabbits.

 

Smiles in Stanley

It was a forced trip for Merrick but he had fun in the end and a good time was had by all.  We headed out early and meet in the Stanley woods a little after 9 in the morning.  The goal was to find some diamond willow and after pounding the swamps for awhile B-rad took home enough to keep him busy in the new hobby.  By luck it was Grandprize's Bday and we had some shooting to do and even had him set of a big chunk of tannerite...to the amusement and even shock of us all.  The weather was amazing the sky was the bluebird sky you can only get in early spring.  

 

A little normal

 

Not Robins or Tulips but there are signs of life returning.  The kids are all back in school and Grace has hit the Basketball court again.  There has also been a strange resurgence of Wii Dance Party every evening in the living room, but such pictures aren't necessary.  Grace has also started archery club, and while she is enjoying it she certainly doesnt want me hanging around watching her...all antics made that abundantly clear to this curious sole.  The snow has had a slow melt and you can feel the the days getting longer.

 

Slope time

 

We are getting some snow and the polar vortex has moved off (apparently to create a mess in TX) so we sneaked off for a some slope runs in the UP.  An early morning drive with bluebird skies, crisp single-digit temps and a thermos of coffee.  Merrick and I hit Pine Mountain for some great skiing conditions.  Plenty of jumps, a few crashes and great day.  Merrick brought a friend and I was able to ski along with them sometimes...although I was not allowed to nap on the way home like they did.

Like the Pre-times

 

Send them back, Send them back.  The decisions were changing weekly and reevaluated every Monday night and in the end the kids have went back to school  It was a Back to School (version 2) morning and everyone is adjusting to the 5 day in person school schedules...and the morning shower and lunch making routines that had all but been forgotten over the past year.  But like most occurrence's, the more they change the more they stay the same.  The older two and slinging pizzas after school and Grace is Backing as often as she can....almost made literal "Lava Cakes" when the oven temperature probe stopped working and sent error code beeps and smoke into the kitchen.  She did nail a cake roll earlier in the week.  The dogs are taking the new schedule in stride, but they would prefer their people home during he day.